This is starting to get draining now and the actions of these officials could derail a good season.
Yet again today we have played against 14 men and it’s getting boring. Seven yellow cards when we haven’t committed one bad tackle in the game.
“Vinny” Kompany made out we were the football anti christ and we are really suffering from it. I don’t fear the opposition I’m just frightened to death we are going to get shafted from the officials and that’s no way to go into watching a game of football. it’s spoiling the hard work and commitment our team are putting in.
It is true. I think it's a subconscious bias. Refs have a pre conception that we are the underdog and are going to have to be dirty and waste time to ever win. We get yellow cards where our opponents dont even get free kicks given against them. We get very few 50/50 calls given our way. When we are behind you can bank on there being 3 maybe 4 minutes of added time. When we are ahead you can bank on a minimum of 5 and usually 7 or 8. It happens too often to be a coincidence. Yesterday was a great example. Hardly a bad foul in the game. Luton were very physical and masters of pulling and pushing with nothing given. We end up with seven yellow cards from nowhere, some for incidents when there probably wasnt even a foul. An absolute joke. It is costing us vital points.
I am not sure whether it us being biased or the referees biased towards us. One thing i do know is that we are on the back foot in most games in the championship which puts the players under pressure to close down, make last ditch tackles and chasing better players. This nearly always leads to more bookings. I also think it is fair to say that if we get a lead we will look to waste time just like most sides do. We were under the cosh for most of the second half against Luton, Burnley and for most part Sheffield United. I think around four of the cards given out at Luton were correct.
Is it costing us points as Smiler says. Possibly. i think the decisions at Burnley cost us (throw in given wrong) and the penalty at Coventry. Do i think it will even out over a season? No, because as said we are the underdogs in most matches and the bigger clubs especially when they are at home seem to be favoured. I have to congratulate us on being out of the bottom three and the four points gained from the last two games. I felt we would be in the bottom three and if we had got no points from those games we would have been. A decent return up to the world cup break but we are still around second/third favourites to go down. I still believe it will be some achievement to stay up but the lads are giving it a great go. At least two new offensive options in January please Tony S.
That is a very balances post Whiston. I would point to games that we have lost by the odd goal in which our opponents have 'slowed the game down' and in which there have been the usual plethora of substitutions and there is never more than four or five minutes added. And if it was Billy Sharp or Pukki going down in the box instead of Wiles and Ogbene respectively, penalties would have been given. You'd have your work cut out to persuade me otherwise. I do take your general point though that if you only have 35% possession and are up against technically superior players, you might end up committing more fouls and getting more yellow cards than the other side. That is a very fair observation. I accept I am not objective but I do try, and like for like I think we do poorly on 50/50 calls.
